Treadway Family Plays Major Role In Tavares

People - LAKE REFLECTIONS

April 15, 1998|By Ormund Powers

Chester B. Treadway, one of the men who helped develop Tavares, came to Florida from Booneville, Ky., in 1910. His paternal grandfather had served with the Union forces during the War Between the States, and his maternal grandfather had served with the Confederacy.

An attorney, Treadway was drafted by the FBI during World War I as a special agent serving in Florida and Massachusetts. One of his assignments was to travel with Thomas Edison to Havana, Cuba, and protect the inventor while he worked at a laboratory there on a mysterious project.

Chester B. Treadway Jr., the authority for this information, said he never found out what secret project Edison was working on.

The senior Treadway's family, including wife Effie and children Chester, Mary and Margaret, moved to Tavares in 1919 at a time when Mrs. Treadway's parents lived in Winter Haven. The younger Treadway said the trip from Winter Haven to Tavares took all day over the existing 9-foot-wide road.

The Treadways settled in a little house on the shore of Lake Eustis.

``When we got there, the house didn't have electricity or running water, and those were the two things my father took care of first,'' Treadway said.

``I guess it was probably wrong to get the electricity because in 1923 we were visiting in Avon Park and the electrical circuits we had in the house were on the old wooden spool system. The wires were curled around a spool that was nailed into the wall, and some rats gnawed on it, I guess. That was the story we got that caused the house to burn,'' he said.

The family then moved to a house on the shore of Lake Dora. Earl Treadway was born there, followed by David, who was the first baby born in the new hospital that was created in Umatilla from a building that originally served as a hotel.

The Treadways had a farm on Lake Dora and raised cattle, hogs, chickens, turkeys and various kinds of vegetables. The family had the only dairy cattle in town. Meat and vegetables were sold to the local grocery store.

Treadway said he remembers meeting Gen. Charles P. Summerall, former chief of staff of the U.S. Army, at the dedication of Summerall Park in 1924, the year the historic courthouse was finished. That was also the year the Tavares Volunteer Fire Department got its first firetruck, Treadway said.

``The first truck was a homemade one. It was on an International chassis. It had a chain drive and solid rubber tires.

``That same year, there was a big hotel in an orange grove in Clermont that some developers had built. That hotel caught on fire one night and every firetruck from counties around went down there. The firetruck from Tavares went down.

``There was one paved road going to the hotel. It was blocked by the other trucks so the Tavares truck couldn't get through. It had to approach the hotel through an orange grove, got stuck and never got to the fire.''

When the senior Treadway left the FBI, he was picked to be manager of the Lake Region Packing Association, a citrus cooperative in Tavares. Next he was elected a Lake County commissioner. One of the things he accomplished during his tenure was persuading the county and state to build a bridge across the lower end of Lake Harris from Astatula to Howey-in-the-Hills.

``It was a little narrow bridge, just wide enough for two cars,'' Treadway said. ``But it did save going all around the south end of Lake Harris. Incidentally, my father would never go across that bridge after it was finished.''

In his next career move, in 1933, the elder Treadway was appointed by his friend, Gov. Dave Sholtz, to what was probably the second-most-important job in Florida, chairman of the state road department. It was important because that board, particularly the chairman, decided what roads would be built in Florida with state money.

After that four-year appointment, Treadway's father returned to Lake County and got into the real estate business. His wife, Effie, a strong, efficient woman, was elected to the Lake County School Board and served so long and so well that the board named Treadway Elementary School for her.

Treadway said things are entirely different in Tavares now.

``When I lived here in 1933, we had a population of approximately 8,900,'' he said. ``When we came here, there were two paved streets, Main Street and U.S. 441. The rest were either clay or dirt.

``But everybody knew everybody. If a stranger came to town and wanted to find someone, we might not know the number of the house, but we could tell him exactly what house to go to on what street.''